this is how to figure out if you can factor a simple trinomial or if it even is a simple trinomial

first you look if the the terms have a greatest common factor (GCF). No? that’s ok, now check if you have a difference of squares, remember to have a difference of squares you must have two terms, perfect squares, and it must be a subtraction. If you don’t have a difference of squares that’s still ok, time to check if you got a pattern. In this case we do so we can factor. Check if it is a simple trinomial or if it’s an ugly trinomial, it’s easy to tell because if there is a lead coefficient more than 1 it’s an ugly trinomial and you have to do more work than we do now. Now you just look for what would work with FOIL and that is how you factor